In Swedish patent applications 75 10559-3, 7607337-8 and 7510558-5 which correspond to U.S. application Ser. No. 720,122 filed Sept. 3, 1976, Ser. No. 805,520 filed June 10, 1977, and Ser. No. 720,734 filed Sept. 7, 1976 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,368, issued May 9, 1978, respectively, are described methods for breaking a hard material, especially rock, by means of relatively incompressible fluid, such as water. The object of the present invention is to provide improved means for making use of the hydraulic breaking technique described in these applications.
More specifically, one object of the invention is to achieve a method and apparatus where the momentum required for breakage is obtained by adding the momentum of at least two fluid mass bodies before these bodies impact the material. This feature makes it possible to use light units which can be handled by one man.
Another object of the invention is to facilitate alignment of the gun barrel with the hole.
A further object of the invention is to achieve a method and apparatus wherein it is possible to vary the momentum delivered into a hole and wherein delivery of explosives is facilitated.
The invention is described in the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings in which various embodiments are shown by way of example. It is to be understood that these embodiments are only illustrative of the invention and that various modifications thereof may be made within the scope of the claims following hereinafter.